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Large firms have an advantage in risk-taking

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If your law department wants to obtain a fixed-price bid for a large block of work, it must needs deal with large law firms. Those firms with, say, 800-plus lawyers can take on an entire portfolio of work. Massive firms can absorb more financial risk, they can deploy the specialist and grunt talent as needed, they can systemize their procedures, and they can invest in software and other resources. Increasingly, as more law firms pass the thousand-lawyer mark, these gargantuan ones can risk relatively Lilliputian bundles of corporate work.

The tradeoff law departments will have to make is between a higher cost structure and more certainty for the budget.

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One response to “Large firms have an advantage in risk-taking”

  1. Patrick Lamb says:
    February 27, 2007 at 1:35 pm

    In many respects, the big firm option is the worst one available. Virtual law firms–that is, smaller law firms that work together effectively, generally can bring all the needed resources to precisely the locale the resources are needed. Most large firms don’t have the presence needed in the jurisdictions many companies find themselves forced to litigate. The GC who thinks outside the box in terms of solutions to the problem you identify is likely to find superior results delivered more cost effectively.